Reviews: An Expanse of Coreys

Babylon’s Ashes —
James S. A. Corey
Expanse, book 6

2016’s Babylon’s Ashes is the sixth book in James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series.

Earth is in ruins; half the population is dead thanks to the Welter Free Navy’s asteroid attack. Neither the UN or Martian space navies are powerful enough to crush the Free Navy, which is supported by close to half of the population in the Outer Planets Alliance. The Free Navy controls the gates to humanity’s extra-solar colonies.

Cibola Burn —
James S. A. Corey
Expanse, book 4

The Ring Builder’s protomolecule creates death and damage — just ask the unfortunates on Eros — but it also grants opportunities. Humanity has lost one major asteroid city; it has been forced to share the solar system with a vast, powerful alien artifact that regards humans as potentially useful raw materials. On the plus side, thanks to the protomolecule humanity now has access to the Ring Builder wormhole network and a thousand life-bearing worlds.

With potential living space expanded a thousandfold, one might expect it would take centuries before groups began squabbling over territory. Ha ha. It takes about a year.

Abaddon’s Gate —
James S. A. Corey
The Expanse, book 3

2013’s
Abaddon’s
Gate is
the third volume in James S. A. Corey’s Expanse
series1.

Perennial
pain-in-the-ass James Holden, the man whose steadfast embrace of
principle helped kick off an interplanetary war, is confronted with
the consequences of his actions in the form of a lawsuit. While
Holden claims ownership of the spacecraft Rocinante,
the means by which he obtained it were somewhat irregular. Now the
space navy from whom he commandeered the vessel would like their
spacecraft back.

When
opportunity offers Holden a convenient escape from the lawsuit in the
form of an assignment in the outer solar system, where the vast,
enigmatic alien Ring orbits, he accepts it. The timing is not as
coincidental as it appears and Holden should have been far more
cautious.